The white corridors
by x3lldanierallsanllx3
Summary: It's a normal day in the TARDIS, except blue fog and weird noises appeared out of nowhere. Trying to find the Doctor, Donna gets lost in a place inside the TARDIS she's never been; the answer to get back to the console room has something to do with the Doctor's past. Will the best temp in Chiswisk be able to get back?/ ten/donna friendship.


**Hello! This is the first Doctor Who fic i publish, it was born as a tumblr prompt for an Anonymus, i hope you find it to your liking. It's mostly frienship but it can get shippy if you squint really really hard. Slight feels at the end.**

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As always, Donna Noble couldn't tell how much time had actually passed on the TARDIS, such knowledge would have been only attainable if she had a watch or a mobile to indicate the hour. She would have had any of those on her person if her "morning" had started differently…

She loved her room on the TARDIS, it was perfect in every sense. But what she loved the most was the fancy canopy bed with those lovely lilac sheets; that bed that always welcomed her after a difficult adventure with the Doctor. They had been to a planet she honestly forgot the name of, mostly because she couldn't pronounce it without biting her tongue, and as it was becoming usual, the trip to return to the TARDIS had been delayed. They spent 3 earth days at the alien location, trying to get some sense into the natives thick head, "Literally thick, Donna! The skin on the upper part of their head is surprisingly strong due to some evolution changes in the last 100 years, it's brilliant! Beginning with…". The Doctor had been excited to discuss the biology of it with their Chief, only they were too busy planning to attack their brothers living on the other side of the river. Three days! Going back and forth across the river, trying to mediate between them; fortunately such adventure ended without casualties. The chief was that had received them before was so glad that blood hadn't been spilled, that he conceded the Doctor the chance to an audience.

She was so tired when they got back to the TARDIS, she didn't order the Doctor to get some rest. Oh she knew he didn't need it as much as she did, but Donna always looked out for him, and if she had to drag his skinny self to his bedroom, she would. Only this time, she just told him she was knackered and that she was going to take a proper nap. And so, she left him in the console room and headed for her own.

When she woke up, everything seemed normal, her room was exactly the way it had been before. So Donna started her morning routine; however, when she had just finished to put her shoes on, something happened. The lights started to blink at random intervals, like she was inside a haunted house or something. At first, she didn't thought much about it, until she realized the TARDIS didn't usually mess with her unless she had said something to offend her, which mind you, only happened twice. It was the Doctors fault though, he didn't quite explain the ship was alive in a way.

Looking up, she said uncertainly:-"Uh.. did I do something wrong? I would've swore we were fine a few hours ago.".- When she didn't get any kind of answer from the ship, she knew something weird was going on. The TARDIS always answered her one way or the other. She stood from her bed and decided to go look for the Doctor; she had only taken a few steps towards the door when a weird sort of kettle noise distracted her attention. A few seconds of searching with her eyes told her she needed to look for the Doctor right that instant, since her room was starting to get filled with a dense blue fog. Donna Noble was many things and knew very little about the whole Universe, what she did know was that when you encounter a substance you know nothing about, you ran away from it. Of course, she didn't learn that from the Doctor, who liked to get close and lick anything he didn't know about…somehow in her head that sounded less perverted.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, the redhead ran towards her door and in one quick movement, she opened it and was out of her room, closing the door again. Her heart was beating faster than normal; as she was trying to remain calm, the fog was starting to leak through the space between the floor and the door. Rolling her eyes and raising her voice a little, she said:-"Oh come on!"- She turned around and after 3 seconds she realized that this wasn't the normal corridor outside her room. Even though she knew the TARDIS could have chosen to mess with her a bit more and shuffle her room through random places, there was no reason for her to change the normally coral likeness of the walls to a sort of Titanium white colour. However, Donna didn't have much time to ponder on that bit of information, as she could hear the kettle-like noise growing in volume behind her.

Taking a quick decision and choosing the path on the right, she started to jog down the corridor and see if she could see anything that indicated the Doctor was close. -"If I found out that daft git has something to do with this… What am I saying, of course he does!"- she whispered, her breathing catching up with her pounding heart. So after the few minutes her confidence in finding her way though the white maze diminished, Donna realized it was wiser to start calling for him: -"Oi! Spaceman! My lovely room is getting wrecked by whatever that weird fog does, if you don't make it stop right now I swear we are not watching another episode of that weird Banana show you like, alright?!".

But as she went further deep through unknown corridors and metal doors, her frustration and worries grew with each step. Feeling like she was a rat in a maze, with no mad scientist to explain to her what was going on or to end the experiment. She could feel the panic coursing through her like poison, so Dona started calling her Spaceman all kinds of names; nevertheless, when she realized she was truly lost, the apologies begun-"Doctor please! I'm sorry I threatened to stop watching BananaBoy with you, but I'm really lost right now and a little help would be appreciated!".

It went down like that for sometime, until she turned a corner and found herself with more of the weird blue fog.-"Oh nono, Doctor!".- She started to backtrack, when out of nowhere, a familiar voice filled her ears.

-"Donna! Can you hear me?"- She felt relieved after hearing his voice, but it only lasted for a few seconds when she noticed the sound had a bit of an echo. -"Yes you dumbo! Where the flipping hell were you? Or are you, for that matter? There's fog everywhere and…"

-"Listen Donna, you have to.."

-"Oi! Don't you dare speak over me timeboy!"-As scared as she was for getting lost while an unidentified substance filled the air she breathed, she would not stand for him to see through that and not let explain what was happening.

-"We don't have time for this! Yes, it's my fault the TARDIS is malfunctioning, but i need you here right now so you can help me stop it! Can you do that and be mad at me later?".-His voice was slightly frantic, so she knew he was right, he needed her wherever he was. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the fog approaching. -"Fine, just tell me what to do before something happens to me, or I swear something WILL happen to you!"

-"Molto Bene! Try to describe where you are, anything you can see that can help."- Walking backwards to stay away from the blue fog, Donna started to pay attention to her surroundings.

-"Well, everything's white, the floor, the walls, everything! I passed right next to some doors running down the corridors, also white. I haven't seen anything else!"- Starting to feel panicky again, she looked harder around her.

-"That sorts of shorts down the list of the places you could be in, it's fine, but isn't there anything else? Anything at all? Any markings? stairs? I don't know…"- Starting to walk faster as her anxiety grew, she didn't notice the wall behind her. When her back hit the wall, she let a small scream escape from her lips.

-"Donna! Are you alright? What's going on?!"- Turning around quickly, she faced the wall and saw it wasn't just a wall. -"I'm fine, I just found another door."- Feeling that her heart found it's way back to it's place, the redhead started to keep on walking away from the fog, until she looked back at the door and saw something else:-"Hang on, there's something engraved here… Lots of circles and lines, I reckon that's Gallifreyan, innit?"-

-"…what? Donna are you sure?"

-"Of course i'm sure you prawn! I've seen it in the TARDIS' screen and some other places too often not to recognize it!"

-"Hmmm, still it narrows it down, I guess. Anything else you see?".-Lifting her hand to trace the pattern with her fingers, she noticed something else right above the words she couldn't read. Letters she could.

-"Actually, yes! There are two letters above the symbols… It's a capital S and a capital F. Will it be enough, Spaceman?…. Spaceman?".- She heard his small gasp through the TARDIS intercom, but didn't expect him to be so quiet when she stopped talking. -"What? Sorry, I…"-Donna could hear him struggling a little to keep his composure, but soon heard him straighten out his voice.

-"I know exactly were you are. So, now just listen to my instructions and don't wander off". That caused her to snort a little:-"Like if! I reckon I've been wandering for far too long now! Just get on with it Doctor!"-

-"Alright! This might take a few minutes, but it'll be fine 'cause you can do it. Allons-y!"-

So for the next half hour, or at least that's how much time her body felt it had passed, she followed his directions to get her back to the console room where he was waiting. A few times, he had to ask her to see if she could see certain objects or markings in any part of the corridors, but being prone to looking too much into little details, Donna had no trouble to point them out for him. The trouble was when the TARDIS suddenly decided the doors on the corridor looked better upside down or when the fog got too close to Donna's liking.

Finally, reaching a sort of bronze door that stuck out like a nail between all the titanium white around her, she knew she was going to see him soon. Going through the door, she almost felt the need to hug the coral-like wall.

-"Just cross this corridor all the way, and If you go trough the last door on the left, you'll get here.".- Feeling like she hadn't sleep as much as she had needed before, she started walking down the corridor. Soon she got to the end of it and through the door the Doctor indicated; Donna could see it now, the console room and the time rotor at the center. Coming from behind the console, she saw her best friend looking like he feared a slap might come his way. He looked exactly like she left him to rest the day before, in his blue suit and red converse, only he had taken off his coat and had a maroon shirt on. His coat was hanging over one of the railings.

She walked faster towards him and hugged him as soon as he was at reach. When the realization that she wasn't hitting him got to him, he hugged her back just as hard as she was doing it.

-"Have I ever told you how much I hate Titanium white?".

-"Nope. But I'm sure you will from now on. And as much as this is a nice reunion, we have to stop this now, before the Old Girl does something to this particular room."-Letting him go, she nodded quickly.

-"Tell me, what do I do?"

-"Over that wall, there's a button that opens a panel circuit right above it. Push it, and when the panel opens, pull up all the green levers as soon as i tell you.".- Marching towards the wall, Donna saw the button there and pressed it. Opening the panel she saw 3 green levers, the 3 of them down. Putting her hands over them, she turned to look over her shoulder. The Doctor was moving quickly, introducing all sorts of commands on the TARDIS' screen; he reached for two different levers at each side of the time rotor and turned to look at her.

-"NOW!"- Pulling all the levers with a little effort, they felt the TARDIS trembling for a moment and then all the lights dimmed to a slight green shade. Sighing, the Doctor smiled at her.

-"Ha! We did it! Oh you're brilliant!". Feeling too tired to reject that notion, the redhead took a few steps towards the Timelord. Sighing she said:-"So what's happening now? Is this a stand-by mode or what?"

-"Of sorts, yes. It's a temporary mode in which i can repair the TARDIS without the risk of her unintentionally moving us.".-Looking at his companion, the Doctor noticed she seemed tired enough to want to go back to her room, unfortunately, they didn't know where it was at the moment. Deciding to sit at the jump seat, Donna sighed and marched to it.

-"So… out with it Spaceman. What happened?"-She saw him opening his mouth and interrupted him:-"No techno-babble please, straight to the point.".- Closing his mouth and then tilting his head to the side as if he was considering her words, the Doctor started to pace around the console, flicking a switch or two as he walked.

-"In a few words, after you went to rest, I stayed here and begun to repair some parts… you know, the usual. Thing is, do you remember I had a few private words with the Chief of the Nor'akiya back on Shn'anhakzrito'oo?"-The Doctor raised his eyes and saw her nod.

-"Well, he commanded the tribe priests to give me a sample of their… uh, let's just say I was curious to know about the thickness of their heads, so they gave me some ancient… parts." Donna turned her head so fast at him she felt as her ligaments snapped and the horrible pain it caused on her neck. Letting a sound of woe and tilting her head to the side that hurt less, she said.-"I'm sorry, did you just say they gave you some ancient alien bloke's head?!"-

The Doctor raised a hand and started rubbing the back of his neck, opening his mouth to answer

-"No, don't tell me, I'm too tired to argue about this, go on".- Sniffing a little, the Doctor kept on talking.

-"Not a head, well… just the roof of it. Anyway! I left the… sample over the console when i was searching my pockets for some tools… some dust must have fallen inside the time rotor or something. Maybe some ancient particle, i'm not 100% sure right now. Thing is, things started to go bananas…"-Donna felt her eyes go all the way up inside their sockets as the Timelord let a little giggle at his word usage.-"… all over the place, and since I calculated the time you'd be up after your nap, I knew you must have been awake when things went barmy. So I tried to call for you through the intercom, and it wasn't working at first but then it did, and here we are." He finished with a smile so wide she couldn't help but join him. Then she remembered her trip through all the white corridors and asked:

-"Doctor, what happened with the walls? Where was I?".

-"Well, the TARDIS keeps the information of all her travels. When I started travelling, she was like that. Because it's sort of like a desktop wallpaper, and back at that time, i was fine with it. So you must have been moved to that storage area."- Donna raised an eyebrow.

-"You mean to tell me that you could change this whole theme of the coral thingies?"-

-"Yup. I won't though, I like it too much… I thought you liked it too?"- He paused what he was doing and turned to look at her, a little expression of uncertainty in his eyes, his big puppy eyes.

-"I do, it's just i didn't know that you could do that, I guess."-She bit her lower lip slightly and looked to the side as if remembering something and said:-"So what was that door then? You only knew exactly where I was because of that door."- Donna knew it had to do with something from his past, so she tried not to sound too interested about it. She could sense the change in his mood as soon as the words left her lips, he stopped pacing for a few seconds and stood there, eyes downcast and looking older than before. She was going to assure him he didn't need to answer if he didn't feel like it when suddenly, he looked at her and smiled slightly.

-"You know, you're too brilliant for your own good."- Rested enough to contradict him, Donna was opening her mouth to answer to him, when he interrupted her.-

"I told you before that i had been a father. Truth is, i was a grandfather too." Waiting for her reaction, he was looking directly in her eyes, trying to read what she thought about such revelation. In her expression he saw she was disconcerted and trying to process it. He was fearing she might react in a negative way when he heard her shout:

-"And you look younger than me?! You bloody martian, that's just not fair!".- At first he was shocked that was what had concerned her the most, but then the Doctor couldn't suppress the need to laugh at her outburst. Laughing with his eyes closed he couldn't see the relieved expression on Donna's face. She had managed to make him forget even for a moment, that they were all gone.

Drying little tears from the corner of his eyes, the Timelord sighed slightly. -"Yes, I'm sorry, it's a little trick I do. I don't look younger than you though. I would say we look the same age, and for some reason the universe think we are married.".- Snorting, Donna said:-"Never married, never ever.". Laughing at their little inside joke, the room felt lighter. Feeling the need to address again how brilliant his companion was, he restrained himself after realizing she would ignore it again, and kept on explaining instead.

-"Well, as you know now, I'm way way way much older than I look. I started travelling the universe with my granddaughter, a vivacious young Timelady if I say so."-As he explained, Donna could see the stars on his eyes, and a bit of nostalgia and pain on them.

-"In one of out trips to Earth, she wanted to experience the school system and having human friends, and well… she took on a human name to fit in, inspired on the place we landed that time. The name she chose was Susan Foreman. Some months later we took in, well… more like kidnapped, a pair of teachers from her school. We didn't tell them the truth about ourselves, so she carved those initials on her room door to make it seem more natural.".

Donna Noble knew there was more to those stories, but she felt like she had asked enough of his past and didn't want to make him feel lonelier. So she stood up from the jump seat and marched towards him, his eyes looking at her wondering what she was going to say. She stopped right in front of him and after gazing at the Doctor for a moment, she put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it slightly.

-"The fact that you let her try to experience new things and even stay put for months, speaks loud about yourself Spaceman. I know nothing about having grandkids… but as a granddaughter who loves her Gramps, I know you did a great thing.".-

Her soft words echoed in his mind, soothing the despair he felt of remembering all the times he had been rude and inconsiderate to his young granddaughter, sometimes undermining the excitement she felt at seeing something new. So he smiled an honest smile at his brilliant companion, his best friend that knew the exact words he needed without knowing much about him.

She smiled back at him and let her hand drop, she turned around and got back to the jump seat, trying to best accommodate herself while yawning, Looking at him again she said with a sleepy voice:-"Excuse me Spaceman, but aren't you supposed to be fixing the TARDIS?"- Eyes widening, the Doctor turned around quickly and started to manically push buttons left and right.

-"Right, yes! Hopefully this little episode only felt to her like a bad cold and nothing more. I hope she's not too mad at me.".- Giggling slightly, Donna was closing her eyes. Thinking a little more on the words he said, she remembered something.

-"Doctor, one last question. When this all started, I was in my room and this sort of blue fog spread from the ceiling. What was that?".- When he didn't answer immediately, she opened her eyes to look at him again and saw he was considering how to tell her what had happened.

-"Well… my best guess would be, and I hope you understand explaining it without techno-babble as you put it it's not easy task, that If she got a cold and you were send to another part of the ship…well…"-Donna could see him struggling to choose a word.

-"Well… it was kind of sneezing or coughing if you like.".-As soon as he ended the sentence, he knew that wasn't the best thing to say. Her gaze fell unto him and the Timelord could feel the mental slap reaching him across the room.

-".. Wot?"-The way she said such word without needing to raise her voice but still feeling like he was under the threat of something terrible, sent shills down his spine.-"You mean to say I was coughed?! Like mucus, is it? That's it, no more BannanaBoy for you mister!".-Before he could explain, she had turned her head to rest on the jump seat, her back angling to him.

-"Donnaaaa! Oh get off! I told you it was difficult to explain in simple words! The TARDIS loves you!"-The Doctor was trying to explain and was getting closer to her when he heard her:-"I don't hear any fixing and repairing getting done Spaceman, if you don't do it more quickly, you won't have to worry about me being mad, but the TARDIS will be mad with you more than i bet she already is. Bringing alien heads aboard and getting her sick… the nerve!".-

Seeing reason in her words, he turned back and continued to solve the problem. A few minutes later he realized she wasn't as mad as he thought she was, but when he turned to apologize, the Timelord noticed his companion was sleeping. Smiling a little and seeing she was wearing shorts sleeves, he walked towards the railing in which his coat was still dangling. He took it in his hands and walked towards his best friend, noticing how tired she must have been after running around the TARDIS all day to get asleep so quickly.

With the utmost care, he laid his coat over her sleeping form, trying not to wake her. Getting back to the console, he whispered:-"Wouldn't fit a rat, but I don't just give my coat to anyone. One day you'll really believe me when i tell you you're brilliant.".- Sending one last glance at her after promising that he would help her see it, he continued to fix the his ship, with an honest little smile on his face.

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**Thanks for reading! If you liked it tell me in a review ;) reviews are love :)**

**I'm planning to write more Doctor/Donna fics, shippy or not, so you know wHat to expect next ;D**


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